Police: Man with gun, bourbon arrested outside Pentagon

August 13, 2019

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Pentagon police say a Kentucky man with a shotgun arrived at the government facility last week and told officers he had driven through the night to attend to “liberty business” there.

WTOP-FM reports Charles Lawson of Pineville, Kentucky, was arrested and charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm after previously having been committed to a mental institution.

Court records say Lawson arrived the afternoon of Aug. 6, approached two Pentagon police officers and made incoherent statements. It says police then questioned Lawson, who disclosed he had weapons in his car. Police searched his car and found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, an 18-inch machete, shotgun shells and a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon.

Lawson was hospitalized, and a doctor told police that Lawson mentioned he was previously diagnosed with schizophrenia.